Great Phishing Email (target - Standard Bank)

I love great phishing emails - the ones where the phishers have made the effort to make the email look legitimate. Earlier this week, I got this one from Standard Bank - an email that actually strikes the right notes in many ways. In fact, it is very difficult to state that it is illegitimate, and I doubt most normal users would be able to spot it as a phishing email.

Firstly, I am ex-customer - so asking details for further screening is not a "bad" message. The grammar, the notes on the opening times of the customer contact centre, the disclaimers are all perfect. I did open the HTML attachment, but not on a browser - and even the stylesheets are perfect (using a legitimate Standard Bank stylesheet). They even have the right anti-phishing messages

"Important security alert! Standard Bank will never ask you to access internet banking through a link in an email. Don't fall victim to fraud!"

And lastly, all the HTML code seems to point to Standard Bank website - unless a domain itself is compromised, I couldn't spot an incorrect domain. But perhaps, I didn't look hard enough.

So, why do I think it is a phishing email?

1. The attachment asks for your ATM pin and Internet Banking password (to be reset)
2. Asks for "Zip Code"
3. Asks for other personal data, such as ID numbers
4. Asks for email password
5. And lastly, the email headers give it away

Received: from exchange.szlonghao.com ([113.98.251.13])
        by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id q66si27264684yhl.395.2013.07.29.03. 

48.06
        for 
        (version=TLSv1 cipher=RC4-SHA bits=128/128);
        Mon, 29 Jul 2013 03:48:47 -0700 (PDT)
Received-SPF: softfail (google.com: domain of transitioning 

ibsupport@standardbank.co.za does not designate 113.98.251.13 as permitted 

sender) client-ip=113.98.251.13;

Happy End

This is the first crowdsourced initiative that I have backed, and got all the rewards. A 96 page hardcover photo book, covering remote plane crashes where all on board survived. Some of the stories of the miraculous landings are impressive - the photos of crahsed planes, where nature has reclaimed them, even more so. His website has many more abandoned initiatives - the Olympic Spirit covering abandoned Olympic games venues is particularly poignant - especially the ones covering Athens.

Turbine Art Fair

Set in Johannesburg's iconic Turbine Hall, the 1^st Turbine Art Fair, was a show case of young artists and gallery art in a single location. There was a wide variety of art, most for sale - and probably the best way to see a wide variety in a single location. A very nice way to spend an afternoon in the city ...

Big Top Burlesque

According to the Wikipedia article, Burlesque is a musical or theatrical parody, although it later morphed into more of a variety show, and in American settings, with a tilt towards featuring strip-tease. I have been to two burlesque shows before - and both featured a significant amount of parody - mostly with sexual innuendo. 

Big Top Burlesque is a South African production, featuring an amazing singer (singing a variety of pop hits), and dancers effectively exhibiting wares from one of the sponsors - Lola Montez. That is not to say that the show was bad - the individual performances were actually quite good, including a great acrobatic show. But, I don't really think it should be called burlesque ...

However the disappointment was not the show - but the food. One of the selling points of the show, is the 3 course meal from the restaurant The Blue Feather, on whose grounds the show takes place. Considering that the restaurant features a R500 per person tasting-menu one would have thought that the food would be of the quality of a fine dining restaurant. Instead, it was, at best, the same quality as a chain restaurant at a shopping mall (and I am not referring to Tashas) - hardly the advertisement for a fine dining venue.

Individually the components of the show were not bad - but the overall package just didn't live up to the billing, and I wouldn't really call it value for money.

Movie: The Great Gatsby

The movie has been out for over 2 months now - and I was quite surprised that there are theatres that are still showing it. I started reading the book a few weeks ago, but for various reasons I just haven't progressed to the finish.

The movie seems to be a very close adaptation of the book - but I did find the movie portrayal to be a far more elaborate and over the top - and perhaps captures the flamboyance and grandeur far better than I imagined while reading the book. And thus, it really is a great adaptation of a classic story.

Credo

The Freedom Charter is quite an amazing document - and given the time it was draft, and the circumstances in which it was drafted, it certainly made for a very forward thinking goal in the struggle against apartheid. It is actually quite a short document, and fairly succinct in what the aims should be for not only political freedom, but also economic freedom.

As a celebration of 140 years of existence, UNISA commissioned, what it is described as a multimedia oratorio, celebrating the Freedom Charter. The work, Credo, is based on a poem by Brent Meersman, with orchestral composition by Bongani Ndodana-Breen and a multi-media projection piece by Andrew Peter Black. The work premiered on Thursday followed by public performances on Friday evening and Sunday afternoon.

It is quite an impressive piece of work . The full orchestral score, seemingly in 4 movements (but that wasn't too clear) starts of quite somber but ends with the expected pomp of hopefulness. The music doesn't overpower either the choir (the Gauteng Choristers) or the solo performances (Sibongible Khumalo, Monika Wassung and Otto Maidi), and there are some absolutely stunning pieces of photography that plays in the background of the performances. 

However, individually it all feels a bit muddled. The performance is certainly longer than that of the Freedom Charter - but there is neither criticism, nor praise, or even any real level of commentary on the charter itself. The charter off course has a lot of politically difficult points - such as nationalisation - and the delivery of the less difficult points (access to health care, security, education etc) post democracy makes it seem more like a hopeful target rather than a real one.

But for me, the sticky discussion point is why is this so intricately tied to Nelson Mandela - the show debuts on his birthday (Nelson Mandela Day) and is 67 minutes long. Yes, Madiba was an instrumental part of the drafting of the Freedom Charter - but does the focus of conducting a tribute to one specific individual not lessen the role of the others in the drafting of this document? Should this work not paid tribute to all the contributors - instead of singling out one?

Gmail's Inbox Tabs Suck

I love tags in Gmail - they are a brilliant way to organise and manage emails. This past week, Gmail introduced a new feature - inbox tabs - some sort of an automate sort of emails based on sender/content. 

Normally, I don't have issues with most changes in Gmail - but inbox tabs just didn't work for me. During the week, I mostly use the Gmail app on my phone - and I kept getting notification of emails that I couldn't see - because they were automatically moved to a different tab; unless I went and changed my view. And there were quite a few inconsistencies in how emails popped up in different tabs - some LinkedIn emails went under "social" while others went to "promotional". 

Perhaps I use my Gmail differently - I minimise the number of active emails on my Inbox, and archive and tag everything else. What really annoyed me - unlike tags, in the tabs view, I could only ever have an email in one view; so I ended up trying to find emails across multiple tabs. Eventually, I just switched it off.

Jo'burg CBD's Integrated Transport Map

Last week, as I got out of the Gautrain's Park Station, I got a pamphlet "Integrated Transport Map", covering most of the Jo'burg CBD. There are two things that stand out immediately - the lack of minibus-taxi routes depicted in the map, and how sparsely official transport lines actually cover the city.

The map covers Reya Vaya, Gautrain Busses and Metro Busses - but these seem to be confined to a very narrow area within Jo'burg CBD. The lack of minibus taxi routes mean that the map is hardly integrated, and it seems that most of Jo'burg is inaccessible.

No wonder the taxi drivers get pissed off ...

Oh, and there doesn't seem to be an online version either!

Leafy greens Cafe

Set amongst a working farm in Muldersdrift, Leafy Greens Cafe is a vegan restaurant focused on organic food and products. It's part of the Casalinga restaurant, which is well known for both its food and also as a wedding venue. 

I am not a fan of dairy substitutes, and I was quite impressed that the majority of the food on offer didn't pretend to be something else. The restaurant is set amongst a grove of trees, with birds chirping (and not to mention chickens running about), it has an atmosphere that is quite unique in Gauteng.

The food courses on the weekend is a plate-based buffet, and the pricing is fairly reasonable. Definitely worth a revisit.

kidofdoom

They burst on the scene a few years ago, and after some notable hype, they disappeared - seemingly another good band lost. While I had never seen their performances live, their music certainly appealed - instrumental rock.

They have re-formed, and are currently on a national tour, though not playing a lot of gigs. Last night, they had a great performance at The Town Hall in Newtown (who were also celebrating their 3^rd birthday). An annoying thing about venues like Town Hall, is that there isn't much else around - thus, given that the opening band, Gateway Drugs, was starting about 2 hours after the advertised start, M and I decided to go have coffee and dessert at Cats Pyjamas instead of hanging about. We caught the tail end of Gateway Drugs performance, which features a great vocalist, especially the cover of Yvonne Chaka Chaka's "I'm Gonna Stop Loving You".

Instrumental rock is weird - often you expect lyrics to kick in, but it never does. But it gives the band space to do so much more interesting things with the music, and cross boundaries with musical genres. With a 90 minute set, and kidofdoom probably played through all their published songs. Often the boundary between songs was blurry, but their on-stage energy and the music itself was amazing. 

It has been a while since I went to a proper gig in a night club - and kidofdoom was certainly a great band to go see live!

Movie: Iron Man 3

I haven't bean to a "bean bag" cinema before - and must say it was disconcerting (is this hygienic?) while being possibly the most comfortable way to watch a movie. Although I had been meaning to go watch Iron Man 3 for a while, something (usually better) always came up. 

The movie itself was notable for some fine acting from Ben Kingsley as the Mandarin, but was off course dominated by technical gizmos, big explosions and corny jokes; and ultimately the good guy (as always) wins; and the bad guy is not necessarily who you think it is. But ultimately, it seems to have been a farewell to Iron Man, at least as a solo character. 

While the bean bag cinema experience was nice, the theatre decided to cut the credits scene, and not show the after credits scene. Oh well - there is at least YouTube for that :)

20 Years of Cricinfo

Cricinfo (or now, known as ESPN Cricinfo) is one of the oldest websites, still operational. It started as a community driven initiative, and as far as I know, it is the largest dedicated single-sports website on the net. It has become the defacto repository for cricket knowledge, opinion and journalism. I blogged previously on the facinating history, and as it celebrates 20 years, some of the back story is now being published online.

10 years ago, a lecturer at UCT posed the question - would anyone pay for news content, when there are so many alternative sources for free. I replied then, that I would pay for Cricinfo and Autosport.com. My Autosport subscription has since lapsed - more due to my waning interest in F1 than the content; and Cricinfo has never asked for subscriptions - but yes, I would still pay for Cricinfo. And there is really, no alternative out there.

Movie: Seven Psychopaths

It has been on the Ster-Kinekor Nouveau circuit for a while, so I was quite glad that I finally got round to actually watching it. It is a movie featuring great acting and a hilarious script - that pokes fun at both established Hollywood story narratives and for that fact what the movie is supposed to be about. 

It is a movie about an alcoholic Irish scriptwriter (played by Colin Farrel), wanting to write a more complex story about seven psychopaths - but without the classic shootouts and standard Hollywood fare. The movie is both about the struggle for him to write the story and the plot that he writes, which is intertwined in the movie - featuring a Buddhist monk, a Quaker, a mafia boss amongst other characters. 

It's a comedic gem that manages to combine insane characters and plot lines.

Song for Sekoto @ WITS Arts Museum

Gerard Sekoto is one of the most prominent South African painters, and would have turned 100 this year. In commemoration, the WITS Arts Museum is hosting an exhibition covering his full career - from Sophiatown, to District Six, back to Gauteng and finally exile to Paris in 1947.

Covering art that is held by museum collections across the country, corporates and private individuals, it is an amazing exhibition that covers all his famous paintings, and other aspects of his life, including letters, books, photos and a whole lot more. I don't frequent art galleries often, and it is quite amazing to see such an extensive collection and showcase of a single artist.

I particularly liked the vibrant oil paintings that seem to shine even from a distance, but the exhibition has everything, including drawings on seemingly scrap paper, charcoal, and water colours. It is an amazing collection, and the exhibition is on until only next weekend (2 June).

Last Night of the Proms

It is an annual event in Jo'burg, hosted and conducted by Richard Cock, with the Johannesburg Festival Orchestra and the Symphony Choir of Johannesburg; to raise funds for Lifeline. Unlike most classical concerts, there was a lot of colour and general fun (with balloons, streamers, clanging keys from the audience as part of the performance etc), and the general demographics of the concert attendees was younger also.

There was a good mix of popular classical pieces, though my personal favorites were the less well known/often played pieces - Popper's Hungarian Rhapsody (which showed that the cello can actually make lively music) and the Highland Cathedral (where the bagpiper was awesome).

It was a fun evening for a great cause. There is one more concert this afternoon, but it may be sold out.

The Music of Korngold

For the past month, Classic FM has been inundated with adverts for a chamber concert featuring the music of Erich Wolfgang Korngold - and the ads were annoyingly bad too. As noted in the program (and for that matter in the Wikipedia article also), although he had very notable success with film scores, his work is largely forgotten, and not often performed. South African based pianist,  Luis Magalhães together with Priya Mitchell (Violin from UK), Daniel Rowland (Violin from UK/Netherlands) and Julian Arp (Cello from Germany) have started the Korngold Project - to record (and perform) the music of Korngold. The first performance was in Johannesburg last night, and will be followed by performances in Cape Town and Stellenbosch this weekend.

The show was supposed to start with Schubert's String Trio in B Flat Major, but that was scrapped as the musicians felt that they were not prepared enough. Given the overall length of the concert, it was not exactly being short-changed. The concert started instead with Mahler's (unfinished, as narrated by Daniel Rowland) Piano Quartet in A Minor. It is a sad, but beautiful piece - of something lost that was greatly treasured - something unexpected from a teenage composer; and to be honest, it didn't feel unfinished.

Korngold's Piano Trio in D Major, was the first Korngold piece of the evening. It is a fairly long piece (over 45 minutes IIRC), and quite a fun piece - in complete contrast to the Mahler. It was also written by a young prodigy (program notes state, Korngold was 13 years old), and it does have the childlike enthusiasm and energy. Korngold's Suite for Two Violins, Cello and Piano Left Hand, was at least as long as the Piano Trio, performed after the interval. It was a collection of 5 pieces, with contrasting styles. The last two pieces of the suit were particularly impressive and my favourite of the Korngold pieces. 

I have been to many classical concerts, but they generally tend to be large productions. A chamber concert, with four performers at times looked lonely in the large Linder stage. But the concert was somehow more intimate than the orchestral performances, and each musician was more expressive and more energetic than even most soloists in orchestral performances. As to the composer - the music is certainly interesting; and having heard some of the film scores (on radio) this week - I think a larger Korngold project encompassing the various styles of music he created would certainly be worthwhile.

Body Worlds - The Cycle of Life

I have seen the Body Worlds display before in Barcelona, and the display is now in Johannesburg. The displays were not all the same, but the overall theme and content was. Starting with conception, ending with death, well actually the act of conception; it is a celebration of the complex machine of the human body. In a short span of time and space, the exhibition manages to teach the visitor a lot about the human body, with some jaw dropping displays, and some not so pleasant displays (that still gets the point across).

In the section on lungs, there was a display on the differences between a non-smoker and a smoker's lung - what I found interesting, was a number of models used, especially in the athletic poses, seemed to have been smokers!

Even though M and I went in the afternoon, it was very busy, and it took us a good 2 hours to go through the full exhibition. There were a lot of kids, and at least one parent was a doctor, giving her kids a more detailed discussion on the various displays. There is only one "adult" section, featuring a couple in coitus, and most of it is rather medical in nature - just a lot more accessible than a cadaver in medschool.

Mind Games @ SciBono

Most of the exhibits at SciBono are geared for kids; with a lot of hands-on exhibits demonstrating concepts of electricity, physics etc. 

Mindball is different; reading the alpha-brainwaves from the participants, the object is to relax more than the other player, and the person with the lower value moves the ball. It is quite eerie in how it works; especially as the only way to win, is not to think of winning ...

House of Baobab

Located in the Maboneng precinct, House of Baobab is an African restaurant featuring food from across Africa. On Sundays, they have a buffet with some absolutely delicious food. At R80 a person, it is great value too!

Movie: Stoker

It starts of slowly, with a big emphasis on style, almost over substance. India, looses her father on her 18th birthday, and a mysterious uncle appears during the funeral, and stays a while. Set on the grounds of a large mansion, the movie seamlessly incorporates the beautiful house and gardens in a very sinister plot. The cinematography is very stylish, and although it is clear that the family is very wealthy - wealth itself is not a central plot component, except perhaps for the scene with "Aunt Julie".

The movie spans a few days, and the plot unravels slowly; but the movie is strangely gripping. It has shades of "The Talented Mr Ripley", but the plot is not as complex with regards to motive and means. 

The Chester Missing Roadshow

Conrad Koch has taken Chester Missing as a standalone act - together with two new puppets, Hillary and Ronnie, in a 90 minute set. Unfortunately, most of the Chester Missing act is the same material as presented at Blacks Only (with some passing commentary on the Guptas); which is a great pity, since there was so much potential for more fresh, topical political satire (perhaps a more South African Daily Show style?)

The addition of new puppets to the show certainly adds more dimension, and the final act, of converting an audience member into a puppet was not only fun, but has incredible potential in political commentary.

The show runs at the Market Theatre until the end of the month, before moving to Baxter Theatre in Cape Town.

Blackberry

I got a Blackberry Curve for work - and have been using it for about 3 weeks. As a smartphone it is horrible - screen is small, navigation within the screen is horrid, and in general doesn't have much going for it. And the famed keyboard - I find it too small, and tend to make a lot more mistakes than with my iPhone while typing. 

But it's not all bad - the battery life is amazing; it is quite responsive, and the enterprise integration for email and contacts work very well; and viewing office documents is easy. That doesn't mean that the iPhone doesn't do these things well (except for the battery life); but the Blackberry does show what focused purpose devices can do.

Regardless, I am not giving up my iPhone - maybe the Z10 would have changed my mind - the iPhone remains the superior platform.

Winter Sculpture Fair

I saw the advert for the Winter Sculpture Fair, by accident on a billboard at Hyde Park Corner - accident, because I took a wrong turn. I was intrigued enough to Google for it, when I got out of the car - and the attraction of good food in an interesting location was too good to pass up.

Unfortunately the good food part didn't turn up completely. By the time, M and I got there (about 1pm), most of the food was sold out - and the remaining stalls had long lines waiting for food. There was also a lack of parking - since all parking was on the side of the road, outside the venue - and the parking easily stretched 1.5 km! This is the first such event, and should there be future events, it could do with a bit more organisation in these regards.

All that said, the Nirox Foundation's Sculpture Park is an amazing venue. Rolling green lawns, with amazing landscaped gardens and ponds, make perfect spot for picnics - although picnics are usually not allowed! There is a warning regarding a stray hippopotamus, on the outside fence - but that was nowhere to be seen. 

It is a large park, which takes quite a while to walk around. Unfortunately, there are no labels as to the title of the work, the artist or any other information. Some sculptures - such as the bakkie made of plastic clothes hangars were easy to identify - the more abstract pieces less so.

One of the cool things about sculptures, is that is very tactile - and whether allowed or note - some of the larger installations led young children to use them as their playground. That alone brought some extra life to installations.

Some of the abstract pieces were at least cool to look at - such as the fractal heads - I counted 8 - but perhaps there were more I couldn't see.

The hunter and her dogs was my favourite installation - it is quite simple in some respects - but at the same time, the complexity of balancing the dogs on one or two legs is more impressive - and the level of detail up close is amazing!

The head of a doll, in a mattress (stripped of all the foam) was weird (and there are a line of such doll heads). Quite a few of the installations featured skulls (human and animal) - and it seemed to be strong theme.

There were a few installations which leveraged off the water features. I particularly liked the reflection of the dog in the pond water.

Noam Chomsky on Worker's Rights

Dave's Worker's Day post had a link to a very interesting (but dated) video of Noam Chomsky speaking about worker's rights, specifically related to the contribution of trade union movement to human rights - and the suppression of trade unions in the US; and its impact on human rights. You need to skip about 30 minutes for the Noam Chomsky part of the presentation (which is actually the only bit I watched).

The part that stood out for me was the discussion on trade unions contribution to human rights - specifically in the context of keeping the government honest, and businesses focused on things other than profit.

In the South African context, the contribution of the trade union movement in challenging apartheid is well known, and acknowledged. But post-1994, apart from Vavi, the trade union movement - specifically COSATU  - has often faded into the background. In fact, as demonstrated last year at Marikana, it seems that COSATU has specifically shirked its responsibility regarding human rights. Vavi actually stands out like a sore thumb - continually asking questions about corruption, and whether you like his economic positions - he has held principled stance.

Even if you don't agree with Noam Chomsky's positions on worker rights - the discussion itself is enlightening; especially with regards to the "non business world" view. That alone is a reason to watch it - and it certainly makes one think - should worker's movements (like COSATU) even consider joining political movements in the first place?

Amazing Phishing Email

I got this email, this morning - perfectly formed and almost indistinguisable (click for a larger size). Pity, I am not a customer ...

The headers, and specifically Gmail's processing makes interesting reading (highlight my own). I wonder why it is a classified as a "Softfail" when the rule is clearly violated ...

Return-Path: 
Received: from dc1.DFMCASTROL.com ([58.48.109.18])
      by mx.google.com with ESMTP id iv6si3639532pac.241.2013.05.01.15.45.30
      for ;
      Wed, 01 May 2013 15:45:36 -0700 (PDT)
Received-SPF: softfail (google.com: domain of transitioning  

ibsupport@standardbank.co.za does not designate 58.48.109.18 as permitted 
sender) 
client-ip=58.48.109.18; Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=softfail 

(google.com: domain of transitioning 

ibsupport@standardbank.co.za does not designate 58.48.109.18 as permitted 

sender) smtp.mail=ibsupport@standardbank.co.za
Received: from User ([74.93.82.193]) by dc1.DFMCASTROL.com with Microsoft 

SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.4675);
  Thu, 2 May 2013 06:28:03 +0800
From: "Standard Bank"

Worker's Day Irony

May 1 is celebrated as Worker's Day in South Africa, and in various other guises across the world. Worker's Day specifically is about the celebration of "the role played by trade unions, the Communist Party and other labour movements in the struggle against apartheid". Like most public holidays in South Africa, it is also used by most middle class households for shopping, and consequently the shops and shopping centres are usually full. It is therefore ironic, that a holiday that celebrates and commemorates the struggles of the working class, means that a significant port of the working class ends up working. At least they get paid more for working on a public holiday.

Muizenberg Catwalk

One of the popular walking paths in Cape Town, the Muizenberg Catwalk stretches from Surfer's Corner to St James. It offers some stunning views, and is a fairly easy and accessible path.

Movie: Oblivion

In Arthur C Clarke's Space Odyssey series, a mysterious space object ends up being the guiding force behind humanity. Oblivion is in some respects the ultimate tribute to sci-fi movies, with a number of interesting references, and a mish-mash of plots borrowed from some of the best out there.

Ultimately, it actually works; although there are some elements that doesn't make as much sense - like the seemingly inconsistent manner of earth's destruction, and the really stupid final scene. But overall, it is an interesting and entertaining concept that is worth watching.

Blue Bird Food and Goods Market

M's friend wanted to meet at a neighborhood market round the corner from the apartment in Muizenberg tonight, so we went round. It's amazingly busy, with a number of food stalls that overwhelms the senses. There is a lot more food than goods, and has a very cool vibe.

Moyo's Courtyard at the Clock Tower

I haven't been to the Clock Tower side of the V&A for a long time, so I am not sure when the Paulaner Brauhaus gave way to Moyo. On the courtyard, there is quite a cool collection of "street food" booths, an installation of hydroponics and solar panels; which is quite impressive to see. Some of the booths have interesting names, and if it wasn't for waiting staff and Moyo being emblazoned everywhere, it would even look authentic!

Metallica

When they were last in South Africa 7 years ago, James Hetfield promised that they would be back. 5 years after their last studio album, they were - better late than never I suppose. I had bought tickets in Cape Town simply because the Golden Circle tickets in Jo'burg were sold out; and the Cape Town concert was later split into two, performing at the Belville Velodrome instead of the Cape Town Stadium. Given the half full Bellville Velodrome on Thursday night, the motivation for the move was quite clear ... although the sparse crowd was still quite surprising.

The concert started with local band Van Koke Kartel. Although 50% of the band is also part of Fokofpolisiekar, I didn't find the music as catchy and energetic. That is not to say that the performance wasn't energetic; but there was something missing.

After a fairly length break (of about an hour!) Metallica finally arrived, and the venue at least didn't feel half-full. Metallica have progressed to the stage of aging rockers, a fact acknowledged by James Hetfield after playing one of their early classics. The concert however wasn't devoid of modern gizmos, with a very impressive video wall and pyrotechnic sequences. 

It was a "greatest hits" type of show, with a performance spanning about 2 hours. All the big hits were performed, with a lot of energy from both the band and the crowd. It was a great concert performance, and definitely enjoyed attending!

The Shinning Girls

At the book launch last week, Arthur C Clarke winner, Lauren Beukes, commented on how easy it is to describe the plot of her new book - "Time Traveling Serial Killer". Unlike unlimited powers of time travel, the villain, Harper, is fairly restricted to when he can travel, and the medium of time-travel is quite interesting.

Set in Chicago, across a period of approx 70 years, Harper kills women - specifically shining women, whose murders seem to power the time travel itself. You meet the victims, usually twice - Harper first stalking them in their youth and then on their day of their death. And like all good serial killers ought to do, Harper, leaves some trademark signs - that are indistinguishable across time.

The story of the hero, Kirby, the lone survivor, and her pursuit of Harper, is woven alongside Harper's exploits. Like Zoo City's Zinzi, she is a strong female lead character/detective who has her own demons to fight and she pursues the killer as much for vengeance as for justice.

In the M&G review, the reviewer comments that The Shining Girls, leaves no comment on society, and doesn't "change your consciousness or your life". No, it doesn't; but that doesn't detract from a very well written story with a great plot. That alone should be the reason to read a book; not every great book needs to be a dissection on the human condition.

Blacks Only Comedy Show - Sandton 2013

As it seems traditional, David Kau started the show with a census of the audience  (of a sold out show, of over 4000); including a request for all Chechens with backpacks to leave the room. Apart from recent events, South African politics was a major theme from all the comedians on the bill, with Zuma, Zille and Gwede Mantashe being popular targets. And as ever, David Kau was brilliant as a host and MC - and his own routines were sometimes far better than the featured comedians!

The show started with KG, from Cape Town - who played on the link between his name and his large size. Apart from the seemingly mandatory fat jokes, his best jokes revolved around the issue of struggle credentials - how is it, he asked, that there seems to be only so few people with struggle credentials; as every one with a tender seems to have struggle credentials, but not the other way round. It was a sobering reflection on corruption, a topic that was mostly left out from the other comedian's repertoire. The equally large, Jason Goliath (another person, who played on the link between his (real) name and his size), was up next. He has an amazing, preacher/motivational speaker style delivery. He largely stayed off politics, but rather told stories with humourous twists - like how, he, a big fat guy, won a tennis tournament in school - as well as some amazing interpretations of a scene from Taken 2 (with corresponding accents).

The two feature performers were on either side of the break - starting with Marc Lottering. Unlike Jason Goliath's large booming voice, Mark's was softer, but still delivered in a preacher style. There was quite a few jokes around social media (on Twitter and Facebook) and a cut out to an audience member who was taking a photo on her cell phone, while Marc was talking about how every action was now being photographed and uploaded to Facebook and Twitter was particularly ironic.

The standout performance of the evening was ventriloquist Conrad Koch and his puppet Chester Missing - a blistering political analysis and commentary across the spectrum. It was the act that brought out the biggest laughs, and pushed some big boundaries. I have seen a few skits on Late Night News (on e-TV), but a live show is so much more impressive. There have been a few well known ventriloquists (Jeff Dunham comes to mind), and I think a full show of just Chester Missing's political analysis would be just as impressive.

Dylan Oliphant, a recent winner of best newcomer, delivered one liners in the style of Jimmy Carr - pushing undiscovered boundaries, and sometimes the jokes took a while to decipher for many in the audience. He doesn't yet command the stage to the same degree - but this is a performer who can easily become the next big thing. Issac Gambu finished of the evening, in a performance mainly in Zulu and Xhosa (and thus I didn't understand most of it).

At over 3 hours (including the interval), it is a show that does bring great value for money; and features excellent performances. Sandton Convention Centre is a central venue - although the bar service is slow and leaving the venue itself is quite congested.

Another Interesting Phishing Email

Earlier this week, there was an interesting mass phishing/spam email sent to a group mailing list, presumably from the "webmaster" of the webmail service. What I particularly like about it, is how legitimate it sounds, and the use of the ruse of applying better security (in this case, implementation of Sender Address Verification, anti-virus and encryption).The original address seems to be a California server on Comcast (although the IP address is apparently in Nigeria?); but the reply back is to an ISP in Chile.

Dear Subscriber,

Please, we are currently performing a database maintenance and upgrade on our webmail log for a better performance of our services to all subscribers. We are very much and indeed concerned about stopping the proliferation of spam. We have implemented a Sender's Address Verification (SAV) to ensure that you do not receive unwanted email(s) and to give you the assurance that your messages to message center have no chance of being filtered into junk email folder.

Also a DGTFX virus has been detected in your email account folder. Your email account has to be upgraded to our new and Secured DGTFX anti-virus 2013 version to prevent damages to our webmail log and files. To help us confirm and protect your account and our webmail log, please, fill the columns below and send back to us to validate your webmail account or your email account will have to be deactivated from our webmail log to avoid the spread of this virus.

Email Address:
Account Username:
Account Password:

You will be sent a password reset message in the next seven (7) working days after undergoing this process. We guarantee and assure you of more quality services at the end of this maintenance exercise and we apologize for the inconvenience this process might caused. Note also that your password will be encrypted with 1024-bit RSA keys for your password safety.

We sincerely apologize once again for this inconvenience and appreciate your help in this emergency situation.

Regards
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Webmail Technical Team

Market on Main @ The Maboneng Precinct

The Maboneng Precinct is a very successful inner-city renewal project, filled with restaurants and art spaces (together with living and office spaces). Unlike Newtown, it's far more compact and seemingly more for the residents as opposed to tourists.There are some interesting architecture buildings and interesting public art installations - which is reason enough to go and have a walk around.

The premier arts space is Arts on Main, which reminded me of Tacheles in Berlin - a teeming with just a whole lot of different art works and artist spaces. Market on Main takes place on Sundays (10am to 3pm), in the Arts on Main complex and it has quite a nice vibe. The art and crafts are not curio pieces (in fact I don't think I saw a single curio piece), and there is an amazing variety of food. It's a great place to just walk around and relax - and have some awesome brunch.

Cycling Again

It has been over 4 years since I rode my mountain bike. Last week, I got it out of the garage, got a major service done, and finally took it out for a ride. Except for the ride around San Francisco bay, I haven't ridden much - and it was a nasty shock to see how unfit I am, and how much of a workout you get from cycling - especially on rough gravel roads. But at least I have a benchmark to compare against - I want to make it a regular occurrence.

Hashi

Hashi is a new "fusion" Japanese/sushi restaurant in Rosebank, next to the Gautrain station. It is owned by a couple from South America, Venezuela if my memory serves me correctly; and it was great to see that Ceviche was on the menu and quite good too!

Unfortunately there wasn't a lot of fusion in the menu; the sushi on offer is certainly a lot more varied than the standard offerings; but had neither the quality or value of a place like Takumi in Cape Town. The presentation was beautiful; but it ended up being quite an expensive lunch. Would be nice if there was more variety in things like ceviche; otherwise not really a lot going for it.

Software Fragmentation

Software version fragmentation refers to the disparate versions of software installed across the user/install base. Fragmentation occurs primarily because the end user does not update or patch their applicable software to the latest version. Fragmentation has been in the popular news lately - firstly with regards to mobile operating systems (where Apple's iOS is probably the least fragmented mass used software platform, and Android seems to be heading the opposite direction); and secondly on Java virtual machines (which is actually under reported, as most reports only cover the PC based JVMs, and not the other JVMs out there, such as mobile JVM or embedded JVM; not to mention the non SUN/Oracle JVMs).

Not being on the latest version is not necessarily a problem - the recent JVM vulnerability was most widely exploited on the latest versions. Likewise, there are now very few exploited vulnerabilities on deprecated Microsoft operating systems, such as Windows 2000 - and there are many of those out there. But for the majority of cases, not being on the latest version implies that there are potentially vulnerabilities that can be exploited in the software.

While operating system and JVM fragmentation is discussed quire frequently, fragmentation in common applications is, I think, a bigger problem. Consider Adobe Acrobat Reader - the latest version is 11.0.2, but how many users are actually on this version? How many are on version 9 or earlier? In an investigation I did for a client earlier this year, less than 0.5% of the install base for either Adobe Reader or Adobe Flash were on the latest versions - and over 50% of the install base was at least 2 versions behind. Not to mention, that some really old versions of the software existed across the user base.

The problem with keeping software up-to date is that it seems to be incredible difficult on a large scale. It is not that there are no auto-updates - but there are lingering problems with dependencies (updating the JVM requires all applications that run on the JVM to also work, or integration of applications like Adobe Reader and Flash in other applications); and some users just don't update. There are other mitigations, such as Host IPS, but there is not a lot of widespread usage of these technologies. 

It seems that the platforms that have managed to get the least fragmentation, are the tightly controlled and integrated platforms - that connect to the Internet, and offer updates easily. Is the Apple, X-Box, Playstation model the way of the future?

Cirque du Soleil - Dralion

I first saw Circue du Soleil on TV about 10 years ago. At the time, I wasn't that impressed - after all it seemed more like a variety arts show with fancy costumes and some choreographed acrobatics. So, when P suggested we go to the Dralion show, touring South Africa, I wasn't overly enthusiastic.

TV and even video doesn't really do the Cirque du Soleil show justice. Each of the individual acts within the show - from the aerial hoops, to the juggling to the trampoline - are all in the standard circus repertoire. However, each of the acts seem to push the boundary for each discipline to, sometimes unbelievable, levels. The trampoline is an easy example in this regard - it was not only the standard acrobatic skills showcased in the trampoline, but the performers themselves were seemingly effortlessly scaling walls and jumping over tall structures. Likewise, in every act, there was something jaw-droppingly different/insane that made these acrobatic endeavours standout.

And the circus acrobatics are encased with clowns (which I do think got a bit tiring at times), amazing costumes and live musical performances. All these put together, this makes it a special type of circus and far more interesting than what I saw once on TV. I have been to a number of circus/acrobatic shows across many countries - Cirque du Soleil is certainly something special.

Movie: Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters

As Lincoln's credits were rolling, M commented that we needed to watch another light hearted, frivolous movie to make up for the heavy atmosphere of Lincoln. So, Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, on its last week in South Africa was the selected frivolous movie. The movie has a poor script, nothing spectacular in its acting and mundane dialogue. That said, the concept of taking a classic fairly tale, and turning it into a steam-punk revenge story is cool, with some spectacular make-up and costumes - especially for the witches. It was a great, frivolous action movie - exactly what was needed :)

Movie: Lincoln

Daniel Day-Lewis' gives such a commanding performance as Abraham Lincoln, he effectively makes the viewer forget that this is an actor, playing a role. As a movie about one of the most significant events in history - abolishment of slavery in the United States - it brings forward the amazing nuances of the actual event - the balancing act between just ending the war, and ending the war with the abolishment of slavery, the horse trading required to get the action done, the archaic positions put forward by those who oppose the abolishment (but thoroughly endorsed by the general public). It is a story about a man who seemed to carry all the burdens of the world on his shoulder - and still persevere.

And the movie is supported by a host of excellent performances - most notably by Tommy Lee Jones, Sally Field and James Spader. In terms of sheer amount of amazing acting performances, there is probably no other recent movie with such a great ensemble. It is a movie with a great script and amazing oratory (something missing from most modern political engagements). It is a movie definitely worth watching.

Movie: Oz the Great and Powerful

I have watched the original Wizard of Oz numerous times; and it is a movie that has stood the test of time. I was intrigued by the concept of a prequel to the series but did not hold out any hope that it would be as good as the original.

The new movie does have a few things going for it. There are a lot of references to the older classic, and overall the story ties together - including how the wizard came to be in Oz (a balloon in a freak wind), to granting gifts and some of the contraptions that the supposed wizard will come to use in maintaining his mirage. It also has some fantastic visualisations of Oz, enhancing its fantastical nature. 

That said, the script was very cheesy, and the movie felt like it dragged on for too long. While it is a perfectly entertaining movie, it is hardly one that will stand the test of time.

All Russian - JPO's 1st 2013 Season 4th Concert

Alexander Lubyantsev was back as the soloist, performing one of the most difficult piano concertos - Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No.3, to a standing ovation. Like last week's concert, Lubyantsev was a study of concentration - staring at the piano with occasional glances at the conductor; and paying no attention to the audience. It was an amazing performance to watch, especially when his fingers were a blur racing across the keyboard. I haven't hear the full piece before - and it has an amazing combination of orchestra and piano - with both having starring roles. There were two encores - the first I didn't recognise (an etude perhaps) while the second was Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumble Bee, which is always amazing to see it performed live - simply because of the speed of the piece.

The first performance of the evening was Rachmaninoff's Vocalise, a piece I have heard many times before - especially in movies/TV series. The concert finished with Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5, to which the audience was warned that "it doesn't finish where you think it does", and that one should "wait for the more knowledgeable to first applaud".

Given the length of the pieces, the concert was a good 30 minutes longer than usual - which was fine, given today is a public holiday. The future of the JPO remains uncertain - hopefully it will survive; but the business rescue documents, unfortunately, do not give much hope.

Ultimate Bucket List

South Africa is a great tourist destination, and Forbes Magazine has an article proclaiming South Africa as the ultimate travel destination. It covers a wide variety of attractions around South Africa, and is one of the most complimentary pieces I have read on South Africa's attraction. And, not a word on crime ...

The Implausability of Secrecy

Law professor Mark Fenster has an interesting article on the nature of secrecy, where he argues that the concept of secrecy (in Government) is not binary - and in fact, in most cases, secrecy is almost impossible to maintain (regardless of the legal frameworks). Using a diverse set of American examples; the article shows how endeavors to maintain secrecy is often self defeating - either through the pure weight of the volume of people who know the information and through disjointed laws and regulations that allow for part of secret information to "leak" out.

Although based on American examples and law, there are interesting parallels to South African government's own attempts at maintaining secrecy - be it the arms deal, or Nkandla or many other examples. Based on the article, the real danger of the Information Bill, is not that ministers can seemingly make anything secret - but rather, by its very nature, that information will leak out, and the enforcement of this law is almost impossible.

Encore! JPO's 1st 2013 Season 3rd Concert

As Alexander Lubyantsev sat down on the piano last night, for Chopin's 1^st Piano Concerto, he already seemed to be in some sort of a trance. As the orchestra played its rather long intro, Lubyantsev sat seemingly staring at the top of the piano, with an occasional glance at conductor Robert Maxym. And when his turn did come - it seemed to be amazingly coordinated, with a tremendous amount of focus on the part of Lubyantsev. It was a mesmerising performance of an artist who seemed to be completely consumed by the piece he was playing - he didn't look once at the crowd; just at the conductor for his cue, and the piano (whether he was playing or not) - and finished to a rapturous applause. His first encore was his own composition (called Raindance), followed another encore of Chopin's Etude no 24. And he came back for a third encore (because "the audience was doing so much hard work" [in clapping]), of a piece he "thought the audience would know, but he wasn't sure if he knew" - all to great applause.

Earlier in the evening, the orchestra started with Beethoven's Prometheus Overture, which ensuring a lively start to the concert. Beethoven's 8^th Symphony was played in the first half to cater for the long concerto, and I am surprised that I don't listen to it more often.

The JPO plays tonight (same concert details) and Alexander Lubyantsev is back next week for an all Russian billing playing Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No.3.

Movie: The Sessions

Based on the essay, "On Seeing a Sex Surrogate", written by poet and journalist, Mark O'Brien, The Sessions is one of the best movies about disability that I have seen. Mark O'Brien (played by John Hawkes) contracted polio when he was young, and effectively lived in an iron lung for the rest of his life. 

Initially the story focuses on his own helplessness - first his dependency on his caregivers; to his relative exclusion from society and societal norms - which sets the movie up wonderfully in terms of the challenges of the disabled. The movie however is principally about the sessions with his sex surrogate - and the performances by both Helen Hunt (as the surrogate) and John Hawkes is magical. It conveys the awkwardness, the hope and the joy brilliantly, and conveys the humanity that Mark O'Brien clearly wanted to acknowledged. It is a touching story, with amazing performances.

Dosa Hut

I have never been to Fordsburg at night. Fordsburg is almost "little India" - with shops open in the evenings, neon lights and lots of different, authentic, Indian restaurants. It has a very nice vibe - although parking is admittedly quite difficult. Dosa Hut is located at 48 Central Road and focuses on South Indian cuisine. The decor is not much to speak of, and the service is somewhat slow - but the food is delicious and cheap. It is certainly not upmarket - but it does come across as more authentic.

JPO's 1st 2013 Season 2nd Concert

There seemed to be a few more people in the concert last night; but there were still a lot of seats left empty. They missed a concert filled with really jovial pieces. I have heard Mendelssohn's The Hebrides (Fingal's Cave) on the radio before, but didn't really know the name. It's a short, fun piece - although it didn't really match the advertised transportation to a scenic Scottish island.

Serbian born, Johannesburg resident, Serge Cuca, played Bruch's popular Violin Concerto No.1. Serge Cuca did not have a strong stage personality when compared to some of the other violinists that have graced the JPO stage in the past; but it was still a masterful performance, deserving of the enthusiastic applause. Continuing the Beethoven theme of the season, the last piece was his 4^th Symphony.

The next two weeks feature Russian pianist Alexander Lubyantsev, with some great pieces. Looking forward to it!

Movie: Zero Dark Thirty

There are movies that are long and fail to hold your attention. But Zero Dark Thirty is not really that long (just over 2 and half hours) - it feels much longer; but still holds your attention throughout. It is an uncomfortable movie to watch; especially the much talked about torture scenes. But there is an element of relentless pursuit - and only towards the end do you realise that this movie covered events spanning a decade. 

It is a movie; not meant to be a documentary - but in many ways, this will be seen as a historical re-enactment. It is in that, the torture scenes become poignant - since there is a catch-22. To state that torture evidence was not useful, further extends the view that torture is barbaric and has no place in modern civilisation. To state that torture evidence was useful, and the result justifies the means; questions the very existence of treaties such as the Geneva convention - and any position of moral superiority. Ultimately the movie chooses the later - and like it or not - most people in the US seems to identify with the results more than the means. 

It is a superbly acted and directed movie. The questions about torture has affected the movie's reap of rewards - but I do think it at least poses the right questions.

Cables matter ...

My Samsung T240 LCD monitor died a couple of weeks ago - not sure why; but it just did. They just don't seem to make it like they used to - my 10 year old Gigabyte LCD still works fine! South Africa doesn't have a lot of choices on LCD monitors - especially in the high resolution space. After all, I saw large 27" monitors with just a 1920x108 resolution. 

After going through a number of manufacturer websites, I established that only Dell seemed to sell high resolution (ie bigger than 1920x1080) monitors; but their 24" models in South Africa are 3 years old, but their 27" monitors are LED and a bit pricey. I eventually decided on the 27" U2713HM, which only took a day to arrive instead of the advertised 2 - 3 weeks!

Connecting up the monitor with my old Samsung DVI-D cable however, I did not get the full resolution - any resolution over 1920x1080 was just snowed out - very disconcerting after spending so much for a high resolution monitor. It was not the graphics card, as the VGA cable could output a higher resolution (though not the maximum); and the graphics card advertised full resolution. So I changed over to the identical looking Dell cable, and it worked - crystal clear picture at the highest resolution of 2560x1440! 

I had always been suspicious of the claims that some cables - especially AV cables - are better than others. It seems that, at least for DVI-D cables, there is something different!

JPO's 1st 2013 Season 1st Concert

The JPO is still under business rescue proceedings, and the documents released do not paint a rosy picture. That said, the JPO has managed to put together a smaller symphony season, with a smaller orchestra through the sponsorship of Anglo-American and Hollard. The Anglo-American sponsorship will not be sustained, and this, coupled with its big debt burden, puts further strain on the future of the orchestra itself. 

This concert season has a lot of Beethoven, in support of the orchestra's Beethoven 9 Symphonies CD collection. The concert started off with Mozart's Cosi fan tutte Overture, which was quite an energetic start to proceedings. UCT Professor, Francois du Toit, was the soloist performing Piano Concerto No.3, whose 3^rd and last movement is quite popular. Personally, I liked the first movement more while the second movement is quite somber. Beethoven's  Symphony No.6(Pastorale) rounded off the evening; and was played expertly by the orchestra.

The JPO is a great orchestra, but ultimately orchestral music is an expensive endeavor to stage. Ultimately, for the JPO to survive, it needs a near full house, every week. I am not sure the JPO itself has explored what that means - from different times, to different music, to different venues. It's one of the fundamentals of business that having a great product is not enough - there needs to be a willing market to consume the product. Sadly, at this point in time, the JPO has a good product; but I am not sure there is a market.

Movie: Silver Linings Playbook

I am not a fan of "Romantic Comedies" - don't like the predictable story, find them mostly annoying and usually don't like the slapstick humour either. Luckily M doesn't like them much either - so much so, that I had to suggest that we watch Silver Linings Playbook (largely because of the high number of Oscar and other award nominations).

The movie retained the predictable storyline; but did find the acting to be superb - and thoroughly deserving of the award nominations (and the wins in this case). That said, I am not sure why it also garners praise for "best movie" when compared to the other movies nominated (which I have seen). While the acting is great; I didn't find that it had a lot going for it TBH. It wasn't a movie that was highly entertaining (e.g. Django Unchained) or impressive visually (e.g. Life of Pi) and unlike Beasts of the Southern Wild, it didn't make me go "wow". It's not really a movie that I would want to watch again.

Mies Julie

Based on a Swedish classic, Mies Julie explores the very topical discussion point on land reform, land ownership and farming. Set on 27 April 2012 (Freedom Day, 18 years after the first democratic elections in South Africa); it explores the complexities of rural life in the new South Africa. As per the very recent farm worker protests; while everyone is supposed to be "free" - it is very clear that political freedom has not really translated to other freedoms. 

And the lack of freedom is not only economic - but also the chains of history that has tied down a way of life; the baas-worker relationship that has tied down the haves and the not-haves; and the freedom to love constrained by racial and social pressures.

It starts of slowly; but it becomes a raw; highly charged emotional performance with an amazing dissection of the state of freedom in the new South Africa. And ultimately, the ending has its own message - that perhaps there is no amicable solution that everyone can live with. That, in itself is a worrying conclusion. And if no one tackles the storm head on - the protests of farm workers is only the begining of a much wider problem.

Mies Julie is on at the Market Theatre until 24 February 2013.